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September 28, 2013

[It was a somewhat
risky decision by a prime minister little known for taking political chances.
Militant attacks in Kashmir invariably receive enormous news media attention in
India, and are often followed by jingoistic drumbeating not only by
right-leaning politicians but also by popular media figures. After an Indian
soldier was found beheaded in January at the Line of Control that separates the
Indian and Pakistani claims to the disputed territory, Sushma Swaraj, a leader
of the Bharatiya Janata Party, called for the Indian Army to behead 10
Pakistani soldiers in response.]

Coffins of officers
killed in an assault on a police station in Hiranagar.

Militants dressed in Indian Army uniforms killed up to a dozen people in attacks on
Thursday on an Indian police station and army base in Indian-controlled
Kashmir, officials said. The attacks, near the disputed border with Pakistan,
came a day after the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said he would hold
talks in New York with his Pakistani counterpart.

Three militants armed
with assault rifles and grenades arrived in three-wheeled auto-rickshaws around
6:50 a.m. and attacked the police station in Hiranagar, officials said. “They
first lobbed a grenade and then fired indiscriminately,” Anand Datta, an
inspector from the Hiranagar police station, said by telephone. “The first
policeman killed was the sentry at the gate, and later three others also died.”

The militants then
hijacked a truck and drove to an army base in the nearby Samba district. S.N.
Acharya, an army spokesman, confirmed that at least three soldiers were killed
in that attack, including a lieutenant colonel.

Omar Abdullah, the
chief minister of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, said that altogether,
the militants killed 12 people in the two attacks, but there were no immediate
details about the remaining five deaths.

The three militants
were killed after government forces confronted them in a counterattack that
continued into the afternoon, Indian officials said. Television footage showed
Indian helicopters and other military equipment converging on the area.

The attack led
opposition politicians to call on Mr. Singh to cancel his planned meeting in
New York this weekend with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan.

“Pursuing a spineless
diplomacy at this juncture will present India as a ‘soft state’ which could be
pushed around by any big or small country,” said Rajnath Singh, president of
the Bharatiya Janata Party.

But government
officials said the attack followed a pattern of similar assaults, including
ones this summer, that seemed timed to derail talks between two prime ministers
who have repeatedly called for such a dialogue.

“This is one more in a
series of provocations and barbaric actions by the enemies of peace,” said
Prime Minister Singh, according to a statement released by India’s Press
Information Bureau. “Such attacks will not deter us and will not succeed in
derailing our efforts to find a resolution to all problems through a process of
dialogue.”

It was a somewhat
risky decision by a prime minister little known for taking political chances.
Militant attacks in Kashmir invariably receive enormous news media attention in
India, and are often followed by jingoistic drumbeating not only by
right-leaning politicians but also by popular media figures. After an Indian
soldier was found beheaded in January at the Line of Control that separates the
Indian and Pakistani claims to the disputed territory, Sushma Swaraj, a leader
of the Bharatiya Janata Party, called for the Indian Army to behead 10
Pakistani soldiers in response.

Mr. Sharif campaigned
earlier this year on a platform that called for a robust peace process with
India, and Prime Minister Singh has long made known his desire for better
relations with Pakistan. But the border between the two countries is one of the
most heavily militarized in the world, and there are many who benefit both
politically and economically from continued frosty relations.

Mr. Abdullah, the
chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said that canceling the pending dialogue
between Mr. Singh and Mr. Sharif, on the sidelines of the annual session of the
United Nations General Assembly, would be a victory for the militants. The
militants seemed to have only recently infiltrated the border, officials said.
Mr. Singh’s decision to meet Mr. Sharif on the sidelines of the U.N. General
Assembly meeting in New York this weekend was made public Wednesday.

India and Pakistan
have feuded over control of Kashmir since the two nations were born shortly
after World War II. Pakistan claimed the province because of its Muslim
majority. But the British gave the province to India, and the two countries
have since fought at least three wars over it.

A considerable section
of Kashmiris would like to be independent from both countries, giving the
conflict a volatile complexity. An insurgency within Kashmir that India has
long accused Pakistan of helping to fuel began in 1989. India has occasionally
used brutal tactics to try to quell the insurgency, and a controversial law in
Indian-controlled Kashmir protects soldiers from being prosecuted even for
crimes like murder and rape.

After a fairly quiet
2012, attacks in Kashmir have intensified this year, with more than 100 people
killed. Not coincidentally, Pakistan held national elections this year, and
India’s are scheduled for 2014.

Hari Kumar contributed
reporting from New Delhi, and Sameer Yasir from Kashmir.